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| Dennis Mahon was convicted of sending a bomb in the mail and sentenced to 40 years in prison. |
On February 26, 2004, Don Logan of the Scottsdale, Arizona Office of Diversity and Dialogue, severely injuring him. After a 5 year investigation, Dennis Mahon, his twin brother Daniel and one other man were arrested on June 26, 2009 and charged in the mail bombing. On May 22, Dennis Mahon, who had been found guilty in February, was sentenced to 40 years in prison. At 61 years, he is likely to die in prison.
Mahon has a long history of involvement in the White Power movement. He joined the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan some time in the early 1980s and eventually organized the Missouri "Realm," as part of Thomas Robb's Klan. Mahon and Robb split over disagreements regarding the support for members of the Order during the sedition trial of 1988. Mahon then created the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. He was also associated with Tom Metzger of White Aryan Resistance (WAR), eventually finding a home and a position of leadership in that racist organization as well.
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| Screen capture of Tom Metzger's "Race and Reason"public access television program, circa 1989 |
Mahon's name also came up in the late 1990s in association with the Oklahoma City Bombing. An informer implicated him in the bombing along with German extremist Andreas Strassmeir as a result of a conversation she claims to have heard in Elohim City, an armed enclave in rural Oklahoma with links to the Christian Identity movement, however there was little evidence to substantiate her claims. Mahon also denied involvement, but he did praise the actions of Timothy McVeigh:
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| July 16, 1997. Mahon speaks to reporters before appearing before the Oklahoma County Grand Jury in Oklahoma City (AP Photo/J. Pat Carter, File) (Credit: AP) |
But in Tulsa, a prominent member of the White Aryan Resistance said McVeigh will be considered a martyr "if he sticks to his guns."
"I believe he was a hero, but his judgment was off," Dennis Mahon said. "I think it would have been better if he bombed the building at 2 or 3 in the morning without massive loss of life."
Dennis Mahon's conviction and sentencing is also of interest to us given our current history project as Dennis was around in the early days of the Heritage Front.
In December 1991, Mahon was invited to speak to members and supporters of the Heritage Front in Toronto. We aren't sure of the timeline here, but at one point one of his speeches was recorded by the Heritage Front; this recording was later reproduced and sold.
We don't have access to the entire video, however Marc Lemire has been kind enough to post an edited copy of it online as part of his expose of Grant Bristow. We won't link to the video (you can find it easy enough, if you look for the Bristow video entitled, "A Call to Action"), but we do have a few relevent screen shots:
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| Droege introducing "co-founder" of the Heritage Front, Grant Bristow. |
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| Bristow speaks to the audience of members and supporters. |
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| Mahon laughs at Bristow's joke. Trust us. It wasn't all that funny. |
Mahon attempted to travel to Canada to meet with the Heritage Front at least one more time, however he was intercepted and deported by Canadian officials.
Interestingly, the Heritage Front video featuring Mahon, "A Call to Action" can still be found on the Freedomsite online store, along with a number of other Heritage Front videos and back issues of the Heritage Front's newspaper, "Up Front":
If you contact Marc Lemire and ask very nicely, perhaps he's still be willing to sell you a copy of the video?
1 comment:
Good riddance. My last memory of Mahon was him pulling me onto his lap and playing with my hair. He planted a wet kiss on my cheek and told me how much he liked red-headed girls. I was 16.
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